2 Timothy 1:6 Why I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in you by the putting on of my hands. What if God should command the flowers to appear before Him, and the sunflower should come bending low with shame because it was not a violet, and the violet should come striving to lift itself up to be like a sunflower, and the lily should seek to gain the bloom of the rose, and the rose the whiteness of the lily; and so, each one disdaining itself, should seek to grow into the likeness of the other? God would say, "Stop foolish flowers! I gave you your own forms and hues, and odours, and I wish you to bring what you have received. O sunflower, come as a sunflower; and you sweet violet, come as a violet; let the rose bring the rose's bloom, and the lily the lily's whiteness." Perceiving their folly, and ceasing to, long for what they had not, violet and rose, lily and geranium, mignonette and anemone, and all the floral train would conic, each in its own loveliness, to send up its fragrance as incense, and all wreathe themselves in a garland of beauty about the throne of God. (H. W. Beecher.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. |
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